Instead of telling voters that this amendment doesn't solve the problem, some opponents are making arguments that only serve to provide political cover to lawmakers who falsely claim they're fixing the pension crisis with Amendment 49.
Gov. Quinn is not getting great press these days. The Cato Institute recently ranked him the worst governor in the nation. His approval rating stands at just 26 percent. And while Gov. Quinn may choose to ignore those messages, he may want to heed the warnings the financial markets continue to fire his way. Credit agencies have...
Household incomes have plunged by 8.2% across the nation since President Obama took office. In the President’s old stomping grounds, median household income dropped by 2.6% just between 2010 and 2011. And now Gov. Quinn is working to take even more from families in Illinois through higher taxes. But there’s no room left in the family budget for another...
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined Carol Marin on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight to discuss the presidential election, partisan gridlock, and his own future in the Democratic Party. At the 9:15 mark Sen. Durbin says, “NO” to a federal bailout of state pensions.
Class warfare is a form of bigotry; it shouldn
Earlier this year, Gov. Quinn signed into law Public Act 97-0695. That law turns over authority of setting health insurance premiums for retired state and university workers to the Governor’s office. Despite the fact that the bill was sent to the Governor more than four months ago, he has yet to exercise his new authority to...
The problem The same forces that helped Quinn land the governorship in 2010 and raise income taxes in 2011 are laying the groundwork for a progressive tax initiative. They want to make the temporary 2011 tax hike permanent and tax certain individuals at ever-higher marginal rates. This initiative, outlined in a February 2012 report, The...
The problem In an interview with Huffington Post, Gov. Pat Quinn said that Illinois needs a progressive income tax.1 “That’s one of my goals before I stop breathing and I sure hope we can get that done in Illinois. Sooner rather than later,” he told the interviewer. The same forces that helped Quinn land the...
by Diane Cohen, General Counsel, Liberty Justice Center When Illinoisans go to the polls on November 6, they will vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to the Illinois Constitution that would require a 3/5 supermajority vote by the General Assembly on any bill increasing pension or retirement system benefits for government employees and officials. The...
States Face More Than $2.5T in Unfunded Pension Liabilities Illinois Policy Institute CEO John Tillman on the impact of unfunded pension liabilities on state budgets across the countries.
See what they're saying about the No Pension Bailout project.
Will a few important swing states like Ohio and Colorado put pressure on the candidates to bail them out of their pension debt?
Last week, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the credit rating of Chicago Public Schools. Today, it’s Fitch Ratings that’s downgrading CPS. The school district’s credit rating now sits at A with a negative outlook, the same rating given to Illinois, which has the lowest rating of all 50 states. According to Fitch, the downgrade was caused by the district’s deteriorating...
Concern over underfunding of both public and corporate pension plans has Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his party and other conservatives making a pre-emptive strike against the idea of federal government bailouts.